Crow Left of the Murder
by Rikachu
Summary: That night in the fight against Baki, Hayate lost his life. Or so it seemed.. AU fic On how Hayate could have survived.. Crappy summary. Oh nooes..


AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hmm.. Well this is really my first time writing a one-shot or any type of fanfic.. well, a remotely good one anyway P About the title.. I happened to be staring at my Incubus CD when I was thinking of what to write and I just thought the name kind of stuck. Actually, I fixed the fic to work around the title a littlef, but yeah it's all I could really think of. Besides.. Incubus is teh awesome! (It was either 'CLotM', 'Second Chance', or 'Dance of the Crescent Moon' O 'Second Chance' sounded lame and 'DotCM' didn't really have anything to do with the main part of this fic. Not that 'CLotM' really fits all that well either xx; ..I forgot what I was talking aobut XD;)

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto. Masashi Kishimoto does and what a lucky little Asian man he is.

..But as my guitar teacher says, "No disclaimers! Just play!" or.. 'just read' in this case :P

* * *

.:-**CROW LEFT of the MURDER**-:. 

"Konoha-ryu.. Mikazuki no Mai!"

With a swift movement, Gekkou Hayate had used a shadow clone to distract Baki from his aerial attack. He came falling down and landed his blade into the Suna nin's shoulder. Drops of Baki's warm blood hit his face, but Hayate just stood there non-chalantly. He was ready to strike again.. But his sword wouldn't budge. Panic struck the Jounin's face as he struggled to remove his sword from Baki's shoulder.

_I can't pull it out!_

"This technique is the Konoha-ryu Mikazuki no Mai? It's impressive to be able to use it at such a young age. Konoha nins are skilled, as I thought." The Suna nin sneered.

Baki brought his hand to the sword imbedded into his shoulder. "It's a great sword move, but the truth is that the actual blade can be stopped. However," He lifted his other hand to form a seal, "no one can stop a blade of wind!" The Suna nin quickly swiped his arm at Hayate, causing a sharp blade of wind to slice through the Konoha nin's clothing.

Hayate gasped. _This is..!_

He blacked out.

* * *

For a moment, Hayate slipped back into consciousness. It was almost morning by then. He found himself lying on his back, barely able to move. The ground around him was wet and red from what he could see. He was losing a lot of blood and fast. There was no denying it; he wouldn't live long. 

The Tokubetsu Jounin looked up to see crows circling above him. There were even some walking around him; pecking at his Jounin vest and whatnot. They must have known he was dying and came to scavenge what they could off of him. It was like an omen. A really bad omen, but ironic in a way. People had always told him that he reminded them of crows, which was a nice way of putting that he reminded them of death. It was understandable though. Hayate did always seem like he was on the verge of dying after all. His chronic coughing and dark baggy eyes made him fit the picture.

Maybe it was good that he would die like this. Better to die fighting for your village's safety than fighting a bad case of coughs, he thought. It was only a matter of time that he had to live either way. The coughing.. it was bound to get worse as he became older; and living the life of a shinobi, he would cross paths with death many times. When two skilled shinobi fought, it was inevitable that someone would die. Knowing that, Hayate hadn't expected _his_ death to be the outcome. He laughed to himself. Maybe it was his sudden cockiness that lead to his demise.

He continued to watch the crows. For some reason, they made him feel relaxed. The calmed feeling was soon interrupted though as he felt a cough coming up. He tried to muster enough strength to ball his hand into a fist to cover his mouth, but it was no use. He was running on low. With his last conscious breath, he coughed.

The murder overhead began cawing continuously, as if giving tribute to the fallen Jounin. Or maybe for another reason..

* * *

_"What the hell are all these birds doing up here? Tell them to shutup.. They're giving me a headache.." The spikey haired ANBU took the liberty of kicking the crows away from the Jounin's limp body._

_"Yeah, ok. Because you swear I can talk to birds.. idiot."_

_"Shutup, both of you." The purple haired ANBU reached down to grab the bloodied katana. "Hayate.. what happened?"_

_"Damn.. someone really put a number on him, huh? There's blood everywhere. No way he could've--"_

_Hayate's head turned slightly as he coughed up some blood._

_"..he's still breathing! Quick! Get the medic nins!"_

* * *

_2 months later.._

Hayate jolted up in a cold sweat. Panting lightly, he groaned and rubbed the back of his neck. His whole body was aching and the sound of crows was ringing in his ears. It wasn't until the noise subsided that he realized he was in what seemed like one of the Konoha infirmaries. But what was he doing there? Was he dead? Alive? Perhaps his moonlit fight was all just a dream? A sudden pain in his chest proved that theory to be wrong. He was alive alright and still very much able to feel pain.

He slid his blanket off more to inspect his torso. A rather large pinkish scar where Baki had struck him now decorated his skin. How lovely. But he couldn't complain really. After all, he was still alive.

Before he could begin 'jumping for joy', the door creaked open. A young nurse walked in carrying some extra pillows and other things. She had been humming a delightful little tune to herself.. that is, until she saw Hayate sitting in an upright position on the bed. Her face turned as white as a sheet; in much comparison to Hayate's own naturally pale skin tone. You could have sworn she had just seen a ghost or something. Hayate wasn't surprised at her expression. He was more or less amused.

"H-hayate-san! You've woken up!" The nurse managed stammered out.

Brilliant. Well, at least now it was known that Konoha nurses had functioning eyesight. Hayate simply nodded in response.

"I'll go get Godaime-sama, right away!" Dropping everything in her arms onto a nearby table, she ran out of the room. The Jounin winced as the door slammed shut behind the frantic nurse.

_Godaime..?_

Hayate was taken back by the girl's parting words. His head lowered in shame. The Sound nins had apparantly accomplished their goal of killing off the Third. He cursed himself for not being able to prevent it from happening. He might as well have died that night. But even then, his death would have been in vain. Either way, he felt inadequate as a ninja.

His neck slowly craned over as the door opened once again. In walked a woman who looked somewhat familiar to him, yet he couldn't put a name to her face. The jewel adorning her forehead was a distguishing feature, but he couldn't remember where he had heard of such a thing.

"Aa, Hayate. So you're finally awake." The woman took a seat next to the bed leaned in to get a good look at his scar. "You seem to have healed quite nicely." She smiled.

"How long have I been asleep for exactly, Hokage-sama?" It was weird for him to call her that, especially since they had just met.

Her smile faded. "It's hard for me to say. You've been in a coma for longer than I've been in Konoha."

"I see.." If that were the case, he figured he had been in bed for a couple of weeks. The initiation of the Hokage itself took quick some time.. not to mention the Chuunin Exams were most likely over by now. And speaking of which, Hayate idly wondered who they had gotten to cover for him.

"It's lucky for you that I came when I did though. The village medics tried their best to keep you alive as long as they could, but in the end, it wasn't enough.. You nearly died." Her sullen expression suddenly changed, "..but that's where I come in. No one can match my healing arts!" A smug grin was plastered on her face.

He stifled a laugh as the blonde's confidence in herself cleary shone through. It reminded him somewhat of that Uzumaki boy from the Exams. Maybe he had found a way into her heart as well. It seemed the Uzumaki Nindou was contagious to ninja of all levels.

Then it hit him. This woman.. she was Tsunade, one of the Legendary Sannin. No wonder why she was able to heal him while no one else was. Her skills were indeed amazing. He was truly lucky that this opportunity came along.

"Then I owe my life to you, Hokage-sama." Hayate smiled softly.

Tsunade stood up and lazily waved his comment off with her right hand. "It was nothing. Besides, there was _one_ thing I wasn't able to fix.."

As if on cue, Hayate raised a fist to his mouth and coughed.

"..that." The Sannin sighed. "If you want, I can take a closer look to see what's causing you to cough so much."

He thought about it for a moment, then shook his head. "Not that I don't appreciate the offer, but I think I've grown somewhat.. accustomed to it."

It was pretty much an everyday thing for Hayate. Coughing to him, was almost as natural as breathing. Though he couldn't remember when breathing ever hurt his throat quite as badly. Or interrupted his sentence structure for that matter.

The blonde laughed, "Suit yourself," and walked towards the door. "..but I'm going to prescribe some medicine to you anyway. Can't be too careful."

The Jounin cringed. Medicine. His arch rival. It's what had made him so sickly looking from lack of sleep. The bags under his eyes.. the constant drowsiness.. he blamed it all on medicine. Not to mention the stuff just plain tasted bad. But never-the-less, he wouldn't let the Hokage's kind gesture go to waste. He nodded, giving her an oh-so-fake smile. Tsunade returned his smile with a real one of her own and proceeded to open the door.

"Hokage-sama!"

She stopped and turned around to face the ill-looking man.

"..thank you." He bowed his head slightly in appreciation.

A small 'heh' escaped her lips. She faced the door again and raised her hand in the air, waving it from one side to the other in a lazy motion before dropping it back down and heading out into the hall.

Hayate fell back onto the bed. He turned to the open window and rested his chin on the palm of his hand to get a better view of outside. A crow had perched itself on a nearby tree. It appeared to be watching him like some sort of guardian. Then one by one, more flocked to the tree. They all just sat there; watching him. Any other person probably would have found this creepy, but Hayate didn't. The sight of the black birds made him feel at ease in way. Just like they had on that night.

Perhaps he had the crows to thank for his life as well.

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTEx2: Whooo. To make things clear 'Mikazuki no Mai' is translated as 'Dance of the Crescent Moon'. It's the attack Hayate uses on Baki in the anime/manga.. Actually, the whole first segment of this fic was taken pretty much directly from the anime/manga. You know. Just in case you guys forgot how Hayate died :P And the segment that's all in italics means that Hayate was passed out when it happened. nods

Well, that's all from me. Hope you like it ;


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